CLC conference 2024: Driving learning through culture, community and connection
Learning with and from each other as an L&D strategy. How about that? It’s not something that’s talked about at many L&D conferences – everyone is grappling with AI – but it was a common theme of the Charity Learning Consortium Conference and Awards 2024.
Learning communities
Kicking off the day, Andy Lancaster, author of Organizational Learning Communities, made the case for learning communities as a primary vehicle for organisations developing people. “I’ve seen communities transform people and businesses, and we have the potential to intentionally use communities for developing colleagues.”
But this does not mean bolting a community on to an existing development programme. It means developing communities where they are needed, based on a clear purpose.
So why consider learning communities now? Lancaster says there are several reasons. Organisations are resetting after the pandemic and trying to reconnect the organisation – people to people and people to the organisation, which is made harder with hybrid working patterns. There is societal fragmentation, as people and communities are more fragmented than ever. And there is the problem of AI being used to create more and more content.
“I am convinced that human connection has to be balanced alongside the AI we’re increasingly using,” says Lancaster. “And I think there is a real sense in many organisations that we need to build interdependence rather than independence. It’s not about my career, my team. It’s about, how do we as individuals connect with others to build value?”
Lancaster shared several types of learning communities, including personal or professional learning networks, communities of practice, communities of interest, action learning sets and coaching circles. He says these communities can help surface the knowledge and skills that sit within the organisation and help that knowledge flow around the organisation.
Successful communities, he says, have a clear purpose and reason for existing. For example a community for managers at review time to look at how to best undertake reviews. Other factors include having the right culture (especially psychological safety and altruism), the right conditions, crediting people for their input and participation, encouraging contributions, injecting content where needed and ensuring you have the right cadence (rhythm and speed of activity).
Reverse mentoring
Building connection is at the heart of reverse mentoring. Dani Saadu, head of people and culture at media agency Wavemaker, set up a global reverse mentoring program where gen Z employees were trained to be mentors and matched with senior mentees. The aim of the initiative was to support talent management, especially amongst employee groups that were underrepresented at a senior level in the organisation.
Mentoring is usually a one-to-one interaction in which a less experienced, potentially more junior person seeks the advice and insights of a more experienced colleague. Reverse mentoring flips the process so that the more experienced person is seeking advice and insights from the less experienced, more junior colleague.
Saadu says the main driver for reverse mentoring is the multi-generational workforce. By 2030 there will be five generations in the workplace – alpha, gen Z, millennials, gen X and baby boomers. As age is a protected characteristic in employment law in the UK, it is incumbent on organisations to make sure different generations understand each other well and can work together effectively.
The mentoring relationships went through a simple three-step process: exploration, new understanding, and action planning. It provided senior leaders with insights from younger colleagues regarding areas such as AI, social media, and the challenges facing younger employees.
Getting buy-in from senior leadership so that they were open to being mentored by more junior employees was a challenge, Saadu says, along with ensuring the mentees created a psychologically safe environment for the mentors to be open and honest.
That’s why managing expectations and providing training to both mentors and mentees on their roles was an important part of the process.
The initiative proved hugely successful, with those in the programme seeing an increase in performance as well as a higher likelihood of promotion versus those who were not in it.
The programme also led to increased collaboration and cross-functional working as a result of the relationships that developed. Plus there was increased retention and internal promotions, especially for underrepresented groups. The programme was so successful that it became part of the organisation’s employee value proposition to attract future talent.
Finally, the senior leaders who were being mentored were able to drive innovation in the organisation by adopting the new ideas and ways of working generated from their mentoring conversations.
Innovation
Learning analyst Laura Overton provided an eye-catching way for L&D professionals to drive innovation themselves: Trojan mice.
The Trojan mice concept refers to small, non-threatening experiments or pilots within an organisation to test new ideas and gather insights (the smaller version of ramming a Trojan horse into a fortified city). Overton told delegates why these experiments are so powerful for innovation:
· Trojan mice are small, low-risk experiments that can be quickly implemented, rather than large-scale pilots or programs. The goal is to test different approaches without major investment.
· Failure with Trojan mice is expected and welcomed, as it provides valuable data and learnings about what works and doesn’t work in the organisation’s specific context.
· Trojan mice allow learning teams to be agile and try out new ideas quickly, rather than planning extensively before implementation. The focus is on rapid experimentation.
· The insights and data gathered from Trojan mice can be used to inform larger initiatives and drive breakthrough moments for the organisation. It’s about spotting opportunities in disruption.
· The approach encourages a mindset of curiosity, open-mindedness, and a willingness to learn from small failures. It helps learning teams be more intentional and business-focused in their initiatives.
Overton told delegates the key is to start small, analyse the results, and then amplify the positive outcomes. This allows learning teams to innovate and make an impact, even with limited resources.
“Peter Senge and people who’ve been looking at how we introduce change in a complex world, have come up with this concept of developing small, non-threatening experiments – tiny things, if they go wrong, does it matter? We do each one with intent and we see what data we can collect,” says Overton
Mindset
Innovation and change require adaptability. For presenter and author Liggy Webb, that means developing a healthy mindset so that we can adapt and thrive in times of rapid change. Webb shared her mindset model, which includes the following behaviours:
Resilience – the ability to recover from setbacks and challenges through healthy habits and managing stress. This forms the foundation.
Curiosity – having a lifelong learning mindset and openness to new perspectives. This helps expand possibilities.
Flexibility – the willingness to adapt to change and view challenges as opportunities for growth. Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.
Creativity – the capacity to solve complex problems through innovative thinking and embracing failure as part of the creative process.
Kindness – demonstrating empathy, compassion and care for oneself and others. Kindness is not just “fluffy”, it is crucial for building connections and resilience.
“The key is to cultivate these mindset behaviours proactively, to be prepared for the future, rather than just reacting to changes. It’s about taking personal responsibility for continuous growth and development,” says Webb.
Culture
There’s a lot of talk about the importance of culture for nurturing learning and performance and Lee Jones, director, Elev-8 Performance, had an interesting take on the topic.
Rather than think about changing organisational culture, organisations should first focus on performance, as that can improve culture as a byproduct. Jones says that creating the right environment for behaviour change and reducing friction enables organisations to see improvements in engagement, retention, and commercial results. But it is hard to make these changes at an organisational level, he says, so focus on making change at a team level.
Jones cited an example of the work his organisation carried out with Wickes. The DIY retailer wanted to close the gap on its competitors. By focusing on the performance of one group of employees – sales teams – it achieved a huge increase in turnover, speed to value for new starters and average order value. But the retailer also saw a drop in attrition in sales service and management staff from 33% to 8%.
To develop more productive cultures, organisations can:
· Move beyond just focusing on values and words. Culture change happens through changed behaviours, not just updated mission statements.
· Prioritise team climate over company-wide culture initiatives. Address the local team environment and relationships.
· Role model desired behaviours from leadership. Leaders need to visibly demonstrate the culture they want to see.
· Provide positive feedback and recognition to reinforce the right behaviours, rather than just criticising mistakes.
· Reduce friction and barriers that prevent teams from performing at their best.
· Focus on driving performance improvements first, as this can positively impact the overall organisational culture as a byproduct.
Returning to innovation and change, Jones urged delegates to give teams the freedom to try new things without fear of reprimand.
“Psychological safety is hugely important for our wellness, so we feel like we can be our authentic selves, turn up, say things, challenge without fear of reprimand, and that we’ve got each other’s back. This is absolutely huge when it comes to culture, and every person in this room can play a part in the psychological safety of the people around us,” he says.
So culture, community and connection can be the drivers of learning, innovation and performance but the conditions need to be right and that is something every L&D professional can influence.
